It Gets No Easier.

[pigeon controller]

We had a call in the week about some corvids causing problems on some drilling so we arranged to have a go on Saturday. In the meantime TopGunners had contacted us as they could not find any shooting in their area. We also wanted to repay them for  the shooting they gave to us a couple of weeks ago.

So we all met up at 08.00 and headed to the farm, the farmer was in the yard and wished us well. As we approached the field it had a total of six corvids on it!!! So we agreed to set up and give it an hour. DB and I walked to the far side of the field and set up with seven fresh birds. In the hour DB shot one passing pigeon and we packed up and walked back to the Disco, we left TopGunners on the field as they had at least a dozen birds as we left.

We had an order for thirty fresh pigeons so we started looking for fields we could set up on and also set TopGunners on so we could achieve our order. Eighty miles later we had found birds on Rape, Clover and Chickweed in groups of approx Twenty to Thirty . We ended up putting the lads on a field of pure clover which had lots of excrement on it also the trees around it. DB and I went and looked at some rape again but decided on some clover fields not far from the lads in the hope we could spook birds between us

We actually set up at 15.30 after moving birds around the fields by driving, we phoned the lads and they had eight. The shooting was very slow then you would have flurry of birds come over. The lads had to get back to Coventry and packed up at 17.00 they dropped of thirty two birds with us  ,we carried on for another hour finishing at18.00 and our total was sixty one.

So the picture is a combined total of 93 birds in a very short timescale so was very enjoyable.     

[WalkedUp]

Excellent work. Always hard decision to move on but definitely worthwhile!

[7daysinaweek]

You certainly put the effort in PC. 👍

 

[Lsto]

It always amazes me about how much time and how many miles you are prepared to put in to get your results. I honestly don't know how you find the time. Excellent work and excellent photo. You reap what you sow and you definitely deserve the returns you get, plus it is always excellent reading for the rest of us. Although I do find myself wondering how much you spend on cartridges a month, it must be equivalent to a small mortgage...

Well done as always and I look forward to your next one

[pigeon controller]

1 hour ago, Lsto said:

It always amazes me about how much time and how many miles you are prepared to put in to get your results. I honestly don't know how you find the time. Excellent work and excellent photo. You reap what you sow and you definitely deserve the returns you get, plus it is always excellent reading for the rest of us. Although I do find myself wondering how much you spend on cartridges a month, it must be equivalent to a small mortgage...

Well done as always and I look forward to your next one

Thanks for your comments, re the costs I think if you ask Fishermen and motor spot enthusiasts they spend more than me. The sale of the shot birds does help with the cartridge costs as long as don’t miss many!! My biggest cost is fuel which I have no control over.

[marsh man]

With the time you put in and the distance you travel for your shooting as I have said many times you deserve everything you get , in some of your reports you say you don't find enough to set up till early or late afternoon , are there times when every field have been explored and you have come to a total blank ?

I now spend most of my time on one place , it is near and handy and as far as Pigeon shooting go I dare say it is one of the best in my small neck of the woods , I spend at least two afternoons looking for one afternoons shooting , this can then give a few fields a rest before they get another short session , this work out alright for most of the times but there are occasions where you draw a total blank , I look at it now where if I can't find any on what I would class as a prime area , is there any point in going furthur afield to look round similar crops ? .

 

[Lsto]

3 hours ago, pigeon controller said:

Thanks for your comments, re the costs I think if you ask Fishermen and motor spot enthusiasts they spend more than me. The sale of the shot birds does help with the cartridge costs as long as don’t miss many!! My biggest cost is fuel which I have no control over.

Thing is as long as you enjoy it and the costs are affordable then the rest doesn't really matter. I feel your pain over fuel. I dare say motor sports cost an awful lot more and I know from experience that a days fishing can soon start to add up also. In the grand scheme of things it's always good to get out. Not to wish life away but I can't wait till my kids are old enough to start joining me out on the field, it'll be a lovely excuse to get out and more importantly spend some time together.

[the hitman]

Nice report PC

We have all done the miles looking for pigeons when plan A goes wrong.

Obviously the correct decision to move and a bag in the 60’s is a memorable day in my book.

 

I am going to have a recce out tomorrow- unfortunately I haven’t done my homework so it might take a few miles to find any.

As far as the cost - the shooting is free so as long as I can afford the fuel I will soldier on protecting the farmers crops and most importantly to me - shooting a few birds in the fresh air.

Keep the Talk from the field posts coming everyone.

Hitman 

[marsh man]

38 minutes ago, the hitman said:

Nice report PC

We have all done the miles looking for pigeons when plan A goes wrong.

Obviously the correct decision to move and a bag in the 60’s is a memorable day in my book.

 

I am going to have a recce out tomorrow- unfortunately I haven’t done my homework so it might take a few miles to find any.

As far as the cost - the shooting is free so as long as I can afford the fuel I will soldier on protecting the farmers crops and most importantly to me - shooting a few birds in the fresh air.

Keep the Talk from the field posts coming everyone.

Hitman 

In comparison with game shooting and even clay shooting up to a point , Pigeon shooting must be at the lower end of the scale when it comes to cost , it have only been these last few years where you couldn't recover a lot of the cost by buying cartridges in bulk and moving the pigeons on to a dealer , if you could  hover around 2 out of 3 over decoys you could have got most of the cartridge money back , I know we don't do it just to get most of the outlay back , but the demand was there and if you were half decent in decoying then why not take advantage of the then demand and get some of the costs back .

Now it would be nigh on impossible , firstly the majority of Pigeons taking to a dealer would be frozen , nowadays we find not many , or better still if any dealers are interested in large amounts of frozen pigeons , In compared to some we have got one dealer in the whole of Norfolk who are still as far as I know are taking frozen pigeons , that is the good bit , the bad bit is what you get for them , as an example the last lot I took made 10p , for me it is just over 80 miles return trip , my motor do say 35 / 40 mpg , so say I use 10 lts at close on £1.80 a ltr , this would then cost £18 just to sell them.

Next the price of cartridges , I can go back to when we were buying the Baikal cartridges for £40 a 1000 and the dearer ones , Style from Richarson's at Halesworth for £45 , the Pigeons were making 35 /40p for fresh and 30p for frozen , we also had at least five dealers within 20 miles from us who would take either , so we had some fantastic sport for next to nothing .

Now, I dare say the biggest drawback with a lot of Pigeon shooters is finding the time rather than the money ? , Yes it do cost a bit more with fuel and cartridges but still within most peoples means if there sport is shotgun shooting , 

[the hitman]

20 minutes ago, marsh man said:

In comparison with game shooting and even clay shooting up to a point , Pigeon shooting must be at the lower end of the scale when it comes to cost , it have only been these last few years where you couldn't recover a lot of the cost by buying cartridges in bulk and moving the pigeons on to a dealer , if you could  hover around 2 out of 3 over decoys you could have got most of the cartridge money back , I know we don't do it just to get most of the outlay back , but the demand was there and if you were half decent in decoying then why not take advantage of the then demand and get some of the costs back .

Now it would be nigh on impossible , firstly the majority of Pigeons taking to a dealer would be frozen , nowadays we find not many , or better still if any dealers are interested in large amounts of frozen pigeons , In compared to some we have got one dealer in the whole of Norfolk who are still as far as I know are taking frozen pigeons , that is the good bit , the bad bit is what you get for them , as an example the last lot I took made 10p , for me it is just over 80 miles return trip , my motor do say 35 / 40 mpg , so say I use 10 lts at close on £1.80 a ltr , this would then cost £18 just to sell them.

Next the price of cartridges , I can go back to when we were buying the Baikal cartridges for £40 a 1000 and the dearer ones , Style from Richarson's at Halesworth for £45 , the Pigeons were making 35 /40p for fresh and 30p for frozen , we also had at least five dealers within 20 miles from us who would take either , so we had some fantastic sport for next to nothing .

Now, I dare say the biggest drawback with a lot of Pigeon shooters is finding the time rather than the money ? , Yes it do cost a bit more with fuel and cartridges but still within most peoples means if there sport is shotgun shooting , 

Nice post - and I recognise everything you mentioned. I also began an Bailkal cartridges- black 7’s & red 6’s if memory service me.

I am still fortunate to have a game dealer giving me 35p each for fresh pigeons- but it’s a 50 mile round trip .

Its my only hobby- except fly fishing which I hardly do at all now - so I don’t mind the cost of fuel & cartridges, also it gets me away from Mrs H for a while.